ATFAQ204 – Q1. Kitchen aids for arthiritis, Q2. low vision aids for reading everyday materials, Q3. Memory tools for brain injury, Q4. Writing, eating and dressing tools for Parkinsons, Q5. Wildcard: New to assistive technology (user side of things). Where do I start?

I have a question.

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Like what?

I’ve always wondered.

What about? Do you know?

I have a question.

I’ve always wondered.

Like I have a question.

I have a question.

Oh, I have a question.

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I have a question.

Welcome to ATFAQ, Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions with your host, Brian Norton, Director of Assistive Technology at Easterseals Crossroads. This is a show where we address your questions about assistive technology, the hardware, software, tools, and gadgets that help people with disabilities lead more independent and fulfilling lives. Have a question you’d like answered on our show, send us a tweet with the hashtag ATFAQ. Call our listener line at 317-721-7124, or send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. The world of assistive technology has questions and we have answers. And now let’s jump into today’s show.

Hello, and welcome to ATFAQ, episode 204. My name is Brian Norton, and I’m the host of the show, and we’re so happy that you’ve taken some time to tune in with us this week. We have a great lineup of assistive technology questions for you today, but before we jump in, I just want to take a moment to go around our virtual room and introduce the folks who are here with me. First is Belva. Belva is the Vision Team Lead for our Clinical Assistive Technology team. Belva, you want to say hi?

Hi, everybody. And I’m trying to change that from vision to sensory, Brian.

Oh, sensory team.

Yep.

Nice. I like that.

Sensory team lead.

Nice.

Yep.

Slight change, but I need to change my copy for the show here.

Excellent. Excellent. Next is Josh. Josh is the director of our assistive technology program. He oversees the INDATA Project here at Easterseals Crossroads, our clinical team, our ATLAS team, lots of different service lines. And he’s also the popular host of ATFAQ. I’m sorry. No, he’s not.

No.

Oh no, I’m not.

No, he’s not.

No. Stop throwing things on my plate, Brian.

Oh.

That’s one way to get rid of part of your job, but don’t do that.

He’s also the popular host-

News flash. News flash.

Yeah.

That’s right.

Hey.

We just talked about trying to slip things underneath without you noticing.

Yeah, announcing it live on the air. Man. Can’t say no.

He’s also the popular host of the AT Update Podcast, one of our flagship shows here. And so Josh, do you want to say hi?

Yeah. Hi, everybody. Thanks for listening.

Excellent. Excellent. So for folks who are new to our show, just want to spend a little bit of time telling you about our show and how we put this show together. So throughout the week, we come across various assistive technology-related questions and we put those into a show. We try to sit here as best we can to be able to answer those questions. We give you lots of different opportunities to provide us questions. You can provide those on the listener line. That’s 317-721-7124. You can email us at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org, or you can send us a tweet with the hashtag ATFAQ, all great ways to get us your questions. We will also solicit your feedback throughout the show. So as we answer questions, we know we don’t have all the answers. And so if you have an answer for one of the questions that we ask today or try to answer today, you can let us know by again, providing those on that listener line or providing that through the email. We’d love to be able to gather your feedback and be able to provide that to the folks who send in their questions.

So without further ado, I’m going to jump into question one. And so the first question is, “I have arthritis in my hands and opening jars and turning small knobs in the kitchen can be very painful. Are there tools or devices that could help me open containers and cook more easily?”

Yes. There’s a can opener that has been around for a long, long time. It used to be called Safety Can, and it was very simple and it was battery operated. So it was just, I don’t know, not very big. But anyway, it’s still around, but it’s not called Safety Can anymore. It’s got all kinds of different names. There’s all kinds of different versions of it, and it’s USB and it’s got lights and all this stuff. But in reality, you just sit it on the can and push a button and it moves around the can. You don’t have to move it at all. You just simply push a nice, easy push button. And the good news is the lid does come off. This is how it got the name Safety Can. The lid does come off without all of those dangerous sharp edges. You can find those, I believe still at like, oh, I don’t know, Walmart, Meijer, those kind of places, but also on Amazon.

And what I did in researching for this is I just went to Amazon and put in arthritic hands tools for the kitchen, and it brought back all types of devices that could be good. But one thing that I wanted to mention too, a trick that I learned many, many moons ago for opening cans and jars, because I too don’t have the strength in my fingers that I used to have. So opening, I don’t know, like pasta sauce, jars and those kinds of things can be a challenge. But a trick that I learned a long time ago is if you take a spoon and go up under the rim of the lid and just kind of pull out, it’ll pop. You’ll hear it go, pop. And then the jar just opens up so easily.

I love that.

So I know, right? So that’s a trick you might try. Just stick that spoon up under the edge and pop it up. You’ll see, like some of the lids that have the little button that is pushed in a little bit until you open it and then it pops out. That’s that pop sound that you’re hearing, I think, because that button pops up. So that was one of my tricks. But yeah, that’s my suggestion because again, it’s all going to be about what really feels good in your hands and what doesn’t. So there are so many different devices that I don’t think it would be fair to just say, “Oh, this is the one you need. Get it,” and it’ll work.

So in our… Oh, go ahead.

Go ahead. No, you had something to say. Go ahead.

Oh. Well, I was going to say, so what you described, the first thing you described, Belva, sounds like what’s called the RoboTwist. We’ve got one of those in our… Is that kind of the same thing?

Kind of the same thing. And there’s one that’s called Kitchen Mama or something like that.

Yeah.

There’s so many different versions of it now.

As I’ve gone out and I’ve done demonstrations of that before, I’ve kind of said this is one of those devices that you As Seen On TV types of devices-

Yes. Yeah.

Where you can get them. And yeah, they’re like $20, $40 or whatever. Amazon, Walmart, all those other kinds of places. The other ones I’ve seen a lot are these lever style jar openers as well. They give you a little bit more leverage. You seem to kind of just put it over the top. It’s got kind of like a triangular shape to it that has some perforated edges in it, like some edges that grab a hold of that can. And it kind of, again, just gives you a little bit more leverage. It reduces your strain and fingers and on your joints. OXO has a good one. It’s called OXO Good Grips Jar Opener. That’s about 16.99 from Amazon or Walmart.

And then really, we used to give these away as little giveaways at some of the different booths that we would have, but they’re these little rubber circles that you can just put. It just gives you a little bit more gripping power, right, a little bit more traction to squeeze and open that particular jar. And so a couple of different options. Those are pretty inexpensive. Those are usually two or $3 a piece, probably cheaper if you can just pick one up at a booth or a fair or something like that. Lots of places will offer those, but you can go to the store and purchase those as well.

As far as knob turners, there are a lot of different knob turners depending on what kind of knob that you have. Is it lever? Is it more of the knob style? A lot of places that I’ll send folks to is if you just go to an OT store, you can find lots of these types of devices. They’re about 30, $35. But Sammons Preston, North Coast Medical have these kinds of things.

And basically what it is, they usually have a large handle that fits in your hand, so you don’t have to grip too hard. It just nicely places in your hand. It’s usually got a non-slip grip, so it stays there, but it helps just, I think to describe it best, it just helps increase your turning force. So you can turn a little bit easier with a lever style than you can by gripping a knob and having to kind of move your wrist more, so. But that would be great for stoves, ovens, even door latches. And so Sammons Preston, North Coast Medical would be places to go find knob and key turners as well, so.

So Brian, I found one, the Homecraft Contour Turner for knobs and taps, but it’s got, I don’t know, almost little pieces that stick out of it. You put it on a knob and it kind of pushes them in so it can grab pretty much anything. So it looks like you could kind of use it on a lot of different stuff, but kind of going along with the same things that you all said. And then Belva, I also found, what is it? It’s arthritissupplies.com. They have-

Oh.

Tons of stuff from chopping to yeah, stove knob turners, all kinds of different things, even some stuff with just larger handles that you might need, but you can kind of search by what you’re trying to do. Are you trying to cook? Are you trying to… Just in the kitchen, it breaks things down as eating utensils and holders, cups, glassware, straws, just lots and lots of different things.

Now, I would definitely say if you do find something on here, still go look on Amazon, see if the same thing’s there for a little less. Or maybe something kind of comparable, you might be able to get cheaper. But you’ll notice, like you both were talking, a lot of it’s maybe not even disability or arthritis, kind of made for these things, but things that can just help like egg slicers, the little one-hand choppers, stuff that just makes some tasks a whole lot easier. Kind of like Brian said, the As Seen On TV kind of devices that can really make life a whole lot easier.

And Josh, don’t we have a bunch of these kind of kitchen devices in our lending library?

We do. We do. So yeah, if you’re looking for some, if you’re here in Indiana, you can go to Eastersealstech.com and check our loan library. Or if you’re not in Indiana, you could always go to eastersealstech.com/states and find the AT Act in your area. They might have some of these devices you can at least have demonstrated.

I know sometimes we have a few knives and things that we don’t really loan out just purely because we don’t want anybody to get hurt, but folks could still come in, see them, kind of get a demonstration and see how they might be able to help with their needs, at least give you an idea of what’s out there a little bit and let you try out a few things before you go and buy to see if it can actually work for you. Because I know some of the ones that you have to slap and do the chopping, some folks don’t like them because they have to hit them a little bit too hard or it can actually hurt your hands when you’re kind of slapping those things. So it can make it a little easier if you do get to try it out first, see if it’s something that might be able to fit.

And I don’t know if electric stoves are still like this, but I know way back in the beginning of time when I first started doing kitchen work, I had an electric stove, but it had push buttons. I didn’t have to turn knobs. I just pushed a button to turn on the burner and I had high, medium, low, or whatever. I don’t know if they still make electric stoves that way or not, but I do think seriously, these are the kinds of things that you want to try to get your hands on them so you can feel them in your hands and see if they’re going to be appropriate for you. So getting a home demonstration through the INDATA would be highly recommended. Or the beauty about Amazon is if you buy it and you don’t like it, you always have the opportunity to return it too. Same thing if you buy it at Walmart because it can look good, but until it’s in your hand doing what you need it to do, you don’t really know if it’s going to be appropriate for you or not.

We had someone on a while ago, maybe not on this show, but on Josh, maybe your show, Blind Kitchen.

Yep, Blind Kitchen.

I would assume that they would have a lot of different tools for … I know it’s The Blind Kitchen, and so definitely for folks with visual needs, but also I would assume that they have dual purpose in helping folks with arthritis and other types of issues as well.

Sure.

And then that’s theblindkitchen.com, right? If I remember correctly.

Is it The Blind Kitchen? Give me a second and I’ll look it up because I don’t really remember.

It is theblindkitchen.com.

There you go.

Okay, cool. Yeah, so check that one out too. That’s another great place, just to get an idea of what’s out there. And then yeah, if you do want to try something, give us a call. We’d love to be able to connect you either to our loan library or to another state’s loan library, depending on where you live. Well, hey, I want to open this up to our listeners. If you have any information for this particular person who’s looking for ways to be able to turn small knobs, open jars in the kitchen, would love to hear from you. You can give us a call on our listener line. That’s 317-721-7124, or send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. Thanks so much. All right, so our next question is, “I have low vision and struggle to read printed materials like mail, medication labels, instructions around my house. What kinds of technology could help me access this information more independently?”

Belva.

Well, I was going to say this is a big question with a whole lot of different answers, but again, I’m going to refer you back to that lending library or the demo of the different things that could be available for you. My first question would be, are you already using a smartphone or do you have one of the smart assistants in your home? Because if so, then you probably already have a tool that can help you with all of the things that mentioned above. For free, if you have a smartphone or a tablet, there is different apps, lots and lots and lots of different apps that can help you read printed materials. One of the newest ones that I have experienced is called Live Read. And what I really like about the Live Read app is you don’t have to capture a picture. Basically, you just open up the app and hold your camera over whatever it is that you’re trying to read, whether it’s a TV remote, or a microwave control screen, or a piece of mail, and it just reads that to you, quick and simple.

Then there’s Seeing AI, there’s Be My Eyes, there’s just lots and lots of different apps that can help with that. And then if maybe you don’t have a smartphone and you’re like, “I’m not trying to have a piece of technology, I just want to be able to read my mail as easily as I can. And right now I’m struggling with the fine print,” because I will tell you, it seems like the older I get, the smaller the print gets on everything. So in those cases, there are different magnifying options that you could look at. Some are very small, fit in your pocket, some are very big and have to have a stationary place in your home to where maybe you don’t take it with you to read the mail, but you bring the mail to it to read. And those are big full-size CCTVs.

They can also not only enlarge it and enhance it, but they can also read it to you. So there are just, I mean, it depends on what would be best for you. This would be a situation where I would encourage you to have an evaluation so that someone such as myself could sit down with you and see what your vision needs are and what technologies might best match your needs, whether we want something high-tech or something that’s going to be fairly simple to use and something maybe hands-free because now I mean we have all these smart glasses that are also out there and available that you can just ask it, “What am I looking at?” And it’ll tell you or it’ll read to you whatever it is that you’re looking at. So lots of options to answer this question.

Love it. Belva, have you ever used anything called Scriptalk?

I have.

PenFriend-

I have.

Or some of those other label, like I know-

I have.

Okay. Any-

So ScripTalk used to be, and I believe still is a device, but it’s also now an app that can be put on your phone. But there was a device too where you could sit your prescription bottle down on it and it would read to you not only the name on the prescription, but the medication instructions for how you’re supposed to take it and that kind of thing. And then yes, the PenFriend, that’s a labeling device and there are a couple of different options when it comes to the labeling devices as well. And again, some a little less expensive, some a little more expensive, some a little techy, some not so techy. One thing that I have learned about, and I probably shouldn’t do this, but with the PenFriend, there is a PenFriend and then there’s a kind of knockoff version, and I don’t remember the name of it, but what I will tell you is in my personal experience, I bought the knockoff.

I don’t recommend that because what I have found with the knockoff is I’ve bought two of them now, if not three. They tend to just stop working. And so then all of your labels that you have created don’t work anymore because the label is connected to the pen itself. So when the pen works stops working, the label stop working. So I’m not a big fan of those labeling devices. I’m not saying that they should never be used, and I’m not encouraging people to spend $100 versus $60. I’m just telling you, in my personal experience, the no name brand wasn’t so good. And if you have already a tablet or a smartphone or an assistant in your home, because with the A lady that has the screen, you can also hold your prescriptions or things up in front of that. Oh, and this is a good time to say with the hands-free options, and maybe possibly this might even be coming with the smart assistants.

If you have a legal document or a medical document, you may have difficulty finding anything that will read that to you. It will come back and let you know that it’s not something that can be read. And I’ve just learned that myself with the smart glasses because I had a guy say, “I’ve been trying to read this from my doctor.” And because it was something medical, it would not read it to him.

Interesting.

So yeah.

The reason I brought up ScripTalk is it’s my understanding that many pharmacies will provide these for free-

Yep.

For customers with low vision.

Yes.

Is that right? Okay.

Yep, that is true.

So-

Yeah. The talking labels, yes, you can absolutely-

And my understanding is they come with an RFID kind of tag in them that lets these machines or your phone read what it is and gives you the name, the dosage, the warnings and other pertinent information about the actual drug you’re taking. So that’s cool.

And that’s not something you’re just going to automatically get. That is something that you’re going to have to request. And I don’t believe that all of the pharmacies have the option of giving you that. So you might check with whatever you are typically using for your pharmacy to find out and make sure-

Right.

That they can offer it.

And then Belva, have you ever used tactile or just even raised labels for, like tactile dots? Sometimes for me, I’ve been taking this medication for years. I don’t really need to know. I just need to know which pill bottles which so that I can take the right pill at the right time. And so maybe something a little simpler.

Real low cost of rubber bands. You put one rubber band-

Oh, yeah.

On the aspirin and you put two rubber bands on the Tylenol PM, so you can touch the bottle and tell whether you’re taking the Tylenol PM or the aspirin.

Nice.

Yep.

Great idea.

Excellent. Yeah, I was always just thinking puffy paint. I think we mentioned that a couple episodes ago. It was just something about puffy paint and I just love puffy paint and so being able to put that on something to be able to identify it.

Yeah. And with the rubber bands or the bumps, either one, if you use the rubber band, easy enough to take it off of this bottle and put it on the next bottle when you get a new… But if you put the bumps on the lid, then you can switch out the lid. So you’re not going through bumps each month, you’re just moving the lid to the new bottle.

Oh, that’s nice. Yeah.

Move the lid over.

Yeah.

Great idea.

Interesting. I like it. Well, hey, I want to open this up to our listeners as well. If you have any additional information to share with this particular person, again, struggling with low vision and being able to read their printed mail, medication labels or other instructions around the house, we’d love to hear from you. Give us a call on our listener line, 317-721-7124, or send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. Thanks so much. All right, so our next question is, “I have a brain injury, and sometimes I forget the steps involved in everyday tasks, things like taking my medication or getting ready for work. Are there apps or devices that could help remind me and guide me through these routines?”

So I’ll start on the device side, just because this is one that we do see a whole heck of a lot. And sometimes apps are the way to go, but for some folks, well, that just becomes another distraction. Maybe it’s nice that it has the alarms or things like that, but if you really get on your phone, open the correct app, find the right kind of stuff, sometimes that can be a little bit much. So this is actually something that we encounter a lot, and I have seen a lot of folks use some very low tech tools to make it work. So dry erase boards, being able to put everything out that needs to be done every day, chore charts that allow you to mark things as done can be very helpful. These can be pretty inexpensive or truthfully, if you’re a little crafty, you could probably make one with some felt and some letters.

But what’s nice about them is you can use pictures just depending on the brain injury. Sometimes interpreting language can become a bit of a challenge as well. So you could use pictures or other things like that. I’ll also say, and this is too of probably the more creative things that I know we do have in our library. One is they are slap bracelets you can write on, but they have little lines. So for complex tasks, you can put all the different steps right there on that slap bracelet. And then another one is the quarterback armband. So if you think the quarterback in a football game has all the plays right there on his armband, we’ve actually had folks use those to remember complex tasks, especially at work, but also just remembering all the tasks leading up to work and the things you might need to do kind of during the day.

So I mean, really it’s whatever works best for the individual in their environment. For some folks having a big whiteboard or a big calendar on the fridge is what they need because they’re going to see it every day. They get used to seeing it, get used to looking at it in order to keep the different kind of things in order. So I’ll go with some of the low tech answers before you guys get into the cool apps and stuff.

I like it. Well, so Josh, I think I learned about this when we went to a conference together and we sat through a session. There’s an app called CanPlan. And so I think what I understand about that, and correct me if I’m wrong, you may have some more experience with it, Josh, but it helps people create routines like a morning routine or a getting ready for work routine. And what you can do is you can create step-by-step prompts that can include pictures, and then you can receive reminders when it’s time to start the task, and then it kind of guides you through a particular task. Is that a good, accurate description?

Yeah. Yeah, very customizable. You can use text, pictures, whatever you kind of want. And it can be everything from, kind of like you said, the things I need to do in a day to maybe, maybe one of my goals is independently washing my clothes. So it can be-

Right.

All the steps to use the washing machine along with pictures and other media just to really be able to help you kind of do it. And yeah, if I remember right, I think the basic versions of it likes free, and then I don’t know if it’s very expensive to have a paid version. I think I want to say the basic version, maybe you’re limited on the amount of different plans you can have.

Right. I think you’re right.

And then yeah, if you do a paid version, you can kind of get all of them. But it reminds me a lot of the old video modeling kind of apps, although it’s not completely video based, but a lot of the really good ones seem to have gone away or gotten really expensive when it comes to the video modeling kind of things. But yeah, no, CanPlan’s a really good one.

Perfect. Perfect. Another app that I use a lot is Medisafe. It’s a smartphone app. And what I love about it, it will allow you to create medication reminders. It can allow me to track the dosages and provides me refill reminders as well. But in addition to reminders, you can also connect a family member to the app as well so that when you don’t… So basically what happens is when you need to take a pill, it’s going to come up and give you a reminder and you have an option to be able to snooze it or to say, “I’ve taken it.”

Now, I’ve been snoozing too many times often, too often, but if you don’t click the button that says you’ve taken it, it will actually, over a period of time, notify a family member that you missed a dose. And so depending on how important that dosage or that pill is, it’s kind of nice to be able to connect it to a family member so that they can keep track of you as well and to check in on you so that, hey, maybe something happens or something is going to happen if I don’t take this dose, it’s going to go ahead and notify a family member and let them know that something was missed. And so that’s called Medisafe, M-E-D-I-S-A-F-E. It’s a smartphone app. You can find it, I believe on both the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. So you can take a look for that one.

The other two options that, I mean, I think these are just a little bit more, I guess not low tech. I was kind of just thinking smartwatches. Smartwatches oftentimes connect to your phone. And if you think about the built-in tools on your phone, you can just simply create alarm reminders for different times during the day. A lot of times those alarm reminders, you can customize them. And so instead of just getting an auditory tone, Siri’s going to speak what that reminder is. And so you could actually have it say, “Hey, take your blood pressure medication,” do those kinds of things at certain periods of time.

You could also set calendar alerts. So if you use a calendar on your phone, you can certainly create a calendar alert as well. Sometimes I often see people using timers for different types of tasks like cooking or leaving for work. But again, so that could all happen from the phone itself, but if you connect a smartwatch, you’re also going to get vibrations or spoken reminders from your watch as well for, whether it’s an activity or a medication reminder. And I think sometimes for me on my phone, I can ignore those. I’ve learned to ignore those in my pocket and not really pay attention, but because my smartwatch is on and it’s connected to my phone, the vibrating bugs me or starts to nag me long enough that I’m going to go ahead and pay attention to it. And so having some sort of a smartwatch connected to that would be helpful as well.

So you can also use your smart assistant, and most people do have some sort of smart assistant in their home anymore. And if you don’t, you can get them really, really cheap anymore because you don’t have to have anything fancy. You can just get one of the Dots if you don’t already have one. But using the smart assistant, you can do simple, set a reminder, at six o’clock, I need to take my medication. At three o’clock, I need to brush my teeth, whatever. There’s also skills that you can use that… I think it’s, one of them I’m thinking of is called sharper memory. So you can have it like, remember, Alexa, remember that I put my keys in the kitchen drawer, or Alexa, remember that… No, Alexa don’t.

I’ve saved your notes.

Okay. Now I’ve just told mine to remember and she’s…

Hey, Belva.

Yeah?

Oh, I lost you there for a minute.

Oh, oh. Well, maybe it’s because Alexa interrupted. I don’t know. But you can also use it to set reminders, set important information like dates and times and those kinds of things if you already have one of those. And what I like about that is it’s as simple as just asking, like what am I supposed to do at three o’clock? And if you’ve already set that reminder for three o’clock, it will tell you that. If you don’t ask it, then at three o’clock, it’s just going to pop up and remind you. You don’t have to give it any cue to remind you. And most of those things are not, as far as I know, none of that’s going to cost you anything other than already having the device. And that sharper image, if you have the Amazon app on your phone, you can use that sharper image or sharper memory on your phone the same as you can on your assistant.

It just occurs to me, like reminders, I mean, there are a million things out there, right?

Right.

So I mean, everyday items, things that aren’t even related to the task of trying to remind yourself of something, they just have those things, alarms or notifications built right into them. And really for me, if you think about how to really decide what’s most appropriate, I mean, the two things that come to my mind is talk to someone who might be able to support you. So a assistive technology provider, talk to an occupational therapist, they work on those things as well. You might also contact, again, like we mentioned earlier in the show, talk to your local Assistive Technology Act program. They have lots of devices in their library that you can try several different things out, see what’s going to work for you based on what you need, the types of reminders that you are trying to keep track of. There’s lots of different things that can really be helpful. So also check out your Assistive Technology Act provider as well.

And I think this might be one of those situations where it’s not just one tool that you need. Maybe you need to use several different ones for your day or your week or whatever.

Right. Right. Well, hey, I’d love to open this up to our listeners. If you want to or have any feedback for this particular person who’s trying to kind of remind themselves of taking medication or getting ready for work, different daily routines that they have set before them each day. Love to hear from you. You can give us a call on our listener line. That’s 317-721-7124 or send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. Thanks so much. All right, so our next question is, “I have Parkinson’s disease and my tremors make it hard to write, use utensils and button my clothes. Are there assistive technologies that could help me manage these daily tasks more easily?”

So my father-in-law had Parkinson’s, and it’s a really frustrating thing to see someone who’s trying to do the simplest of task, but they can’t get their hands to do what they need them to do. For writing, I would say try to do dictation as much as you can. And for buttons, I would say look for snaps rather than buttons. Magnetic snaps are the best. So I know that the country western clothing line, the snaps are kind of a very popular thing, but I don’t know about dress clothing, if it would be so popular for that or not, but I am counting on you guys to know some tools that will help with the dressing.

Yeah, so for me, so there are lots of different tools. Again, it kind of falls into this occupational therapy realm. Things like clothing sticks can sometimes be really helpful. There are also things called button hooks that’ll slide themselves through your button hole to be able to grab the actual button and then pull that button through the hole itself. So button hooks. And then there’s also things called zipper poles that help, being able to help with zipping up and down. Those are all great ways to be able to help with being able to get dressed in the morning. As far as writing, some of the things that I’ve done for clients over the years, I would agree voice activation or speech input’s a really good option. It’s gotten to the point where you can pretty much control the whole computer with just your voice. You don’t have to be able to use a mouse or keyboard if you don’t need to or want to.

However, if you do, a couple of the things that have come to mind that I’ve used in the past, ergo rest arm supports. Those are basically things that attach to the front of your desk and they’ve got little pads that your arms can rest in. Just having the leverage to be able to put some force against your arms to be able to help control some of the tremors in your forearms and in your overall arm were really helpful for some of the folks that I worked with. So it helped them guide them a little bit more as they were using a keyboard, as they were using a mouse, or as they were writing as well. So ergo rest, arm support sometimes were pretty helpful. A couple other things. Oftentimes building up handles, something that’s bigger, bulkier, you don’t have to grip something so tightly or that’s so small.

You can oftentimes build up those grips a little bit. It sometimes can make writing a little bit easier for folks. You can also use weighted writing instruments as well. So if you want to use, I don’t even know what’s in them, but they’re just bulkier and they have some weight to them. Sometimes that weight just counterbalances some of those tremors that you experience. And then I know we have this in the library. I don’t know if it’s made specifically for folks who have Parkinson’s, but I would venture a guess Guided Hands might be an option. I think it’s made a lot of times for folks with cerebral palsy and some other types of some challenges, but I would also think Guided Hands might also be a nice option for folks.

Yeah. Guided Hands, that was going to be one that I was going to say. The button hooks, Brian, I know a lot of people that use those a whole lot. Sometimes with Parkinson’s, that might be a challenge just because you do still have to really feed it through the hole a little bit. But looking on Amazon, you can actually get magnetic button replacements for pretty cheap. 10 bucks are kind of less. It looks like they might be removable, but also washable, so you could put them on once and kind of leave them. And with that magnetic, you just got to get them close. As long as you can get the two sides of your shirt close, they’ll kind of go together. There’s also a lot of specialty clothing for those. I do also agree though with some of the things, just bigger, bulkier, a little bit more to hold onto.

And I love the ergo rest. On the kind of more expensive side, there are gloves out there that work for some folks. They don’t always work for Parkinson’s. Sometimes they work more for the essential tremor kind of, but it’s still something to maybe try out. Their Steadiwear is one of them. I believe there’s one called GyroGlove, although I’ve never seen it. I have worked with a few people where it has made a big change. Essentially, it’s usually like a box, not a box, but a kind of a device, almost like a glove, but it’s got something that sits on top of the hand and basically it counteracts your tremors. So as you have a tremor, it essentially moves in the opposite direction, to way oversimplify what they do, to try to kind of take that out. So again, they’re not inexpensive. I want to say they run in the six, seven, $800 range probably.

But if they would happen to work, they could kind of maybe help with all those different things you kind of ask for by being able to take that little bit of tremor away. Also, and they didn’t mention it on here, but there’s also an anti-tremor mouse. If you’re looking to try to use a computer that’s not very expensive, there’s a couple of different ones, but one of them, I know your mouse just plugs into it, it plugs into the computer, and it does kind of the same thing as those gloves. It gets to know how you move and where you’re trying to move, and it just counteracts those shakes and tremors so that you can still access your computer pretty easily. If you can mix that with voice, it’d probably give you an extra access method and be able to assist even further.

Hey, Josh, talking about the mouse, one of the mice that I really like is the thumb mouse, because that one you can actually let your hand lay in your lap and sometimes it’s easier and you control it with your thumb. And so the tremors don’t interfere too much with that. That’s also very, very inexpensive. And something else that I was thinking as a writing tool, and I’m not sure what they’re called, and I should know this, but it’s those page liners that we use for the visually impaired-

Oh, yeah.

To help. Yeah, the-

Oh, they have the-

Like raised line guides or something like that.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

I think line guide.

Like a signature guide, but they’re a little bit bigger.

Yeah, I think it’s a line guide is what it’s called, I believe.

Yep.

That could also help with writing just because it keeps you in a specific space.

You’re not going to have to worry about trailing off or across the page or anything. It’s to be able to keep the pencil or pen in that area. It’s a good idea, Belva.

Yeah.

I like it. I like it. Well, hey, I want to open this up to our listeners. If you have any information to share with this particular person who has Parkinson’s, is having difficulty writing, using utensils in the kitchen or even getting dressed with buttons and other types of things, love for you to be able to share what you know about that. You can give us a call on our listener line, that’s 317-721-7124, or send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. Thanks so much. And now it’s time for the wildcard question.

All right, so our next question is the wildcard question, and this question is something that we haven’t had any time to prepare for, but the question is, “I’m new to assistive technology.” This is an assistive technology user. “And not really sure where to start. How do I figure out what tools or devices might help me with the challenges I have every day?” And so let me start with this one. I think it’s really important for the first thing for you to do is really just focus on those challenges. I mean, you can think throughout your day, what are the primary challenges? I mean, there may be difficulties that you have throughout your day, but what are those primary difficulties, the things that you have to get done to be able to have a successful day and focus on those kinds of things and then think to yourself, what can I do to be or to have a better experience or to be able to do this a little bit more easily?

And so couple of things to do. The first thing is I might reach out to a professional. There are AT providers and if you’re in the United States, whether you’re in a state or territory, you have an Assistive Technology Act provider. You could reach out to them and have just a brief conversation. They can provide some input or make some referrals for you. You might also talk to your primary physician, ask them about an occupational therapist visit, see if you can meet with someone who’s an occupational therapist, to talk with them as well. But there’s lots of great folks out there who might be able to support you in your need. And so talking with a professional would be pretty helpful. As far as your Assistive Technology Act program, you can oftentimes visit those programs. They all have loan libraries. You might be able to try something out, take some time to be able to see what’s out there based on those challenges as you’ve really focused in on what are the primary things you’re really trying to address throughout your day. Try some things out, see if they might work for you.

And then I would always encourage folks, really maybe from the very beginning, is think about what you already have. I think it’s always something challenging for folks when they have a particular need and they want something to be able to solve that problem, they kind of look outside of what they already currently use. And, right, so focusing on the tools that you already have, thinking about whether they can be adjusted, is there something that I could do that could be done differently with what I already have that would be able to solve my problem? So really think about those things. Think about what you have. Can they be adjusted? If they can’t, well then start thinking about other things and then maybe working backwards with the things I’ve already mentioned. Talk to your Assistive Technology Act program, talk to an AT professional, occupational therapist, or someone who may be able to help steer you in the right direction.

Also, look to your community, talk to your people at church and family members to say, “I’m really having a lot of trouble trying to turn the knob on the stove.” And you might find that somebody says, “Hey, you know what I did that made it a lot easier for me?” Because I mean, if I’m 100% honest, a lot of the things that I know about, it’s because I’ve learned it from someone else, from one of the consumers who says, for example, the rubber band trick, I use that all the time as one of my low-tech technology devices, but that’s something that I learned from one of my clients. So just speaking with others that may be experiencing the same kind of problems that you’re having to get general ideas. And always, if you can, start with the low cost before you go to the high cost, because assistive technology can be very expensive.

And oftentimes there will be something that’s either no cost or a low cost that will be sufficing your needs at that time. Like for example, earlier in this show, we were talking about things that could help us in the kitchen and the jar opening things. Believe it or not, just the standard shelf liner that you buy to put down in your drawers and on your shelves, that can also work as a jar opening device. You can just cut yourself a square off of that and put that on top of the jar and set the jar on top of it so that it doesn’t slide around on you and get a good grip that way too. And then there you’re not going out and buying anything and just cutting a couple squares off of something that you might already have.

So yeah, talk to your community and see. Listen for other, if you’re listening to us, I assume that you are listening to other podcasts or shows. Listen for different, because there are lots of different podcasts out here for assistive technology and different needs where you might be able to gather some information as well.

And Belva you stole mine. I was going to say, yeah, listen to other podcasts too.

Okay.

I was going to do that. I was like, Assistive Technology Update has over 770 episodes now, so there should be something on there hopefully that can kind of help out. But no, just to echo you all, yeah, ask friends, family, reach out to different organizations and kind of places. And yeah, then definitely tap your AT Act because even if they’re not the ones to help, let’s say that it’s a need that needs to go through some other kind of thing, they’re going to probably know who those folks are and be able to get you in touch with them. Or if it’s something they have in the library, most of the time, I know we can here, but most of them will be able to do a demonstration, bring some things to your home, let you try them out and really see what might be able to kind of help with those needs.

But as Brian said, it’s really important to figure out exactly what it is that you’re kind of struggling with first. I get the calls, most of our calls and emails come to me originally before I hand them to Belva or somebody smarter, but I do get the question of, I have insert disability here, what do I need to help me? And it’s an impossible question because there’s no, oh, you have low vision. Well, you need this and that’ll help you do everything.

Right.

There’s no such thing.

Right.

It’s what are you trying to accomplish and what challenges do you have? Because most folks I’ve met and human beings in and of themselves are very resourceful and will figure out how to do a lot of things just with, well, Belva, like you said earlier, with rubber bands, with different things like that that you have laying around to make it, but what are you really struggling with? Where are the challenges? What could be easier? And kind of focus on it one at a time and kind of see. There might be something that can help with more than one task, but really where’s the biggest frustration? Where’s the biggest challenge? Start with that and then kind of move on from there. But don’t overwhelm yourself to begin with. But yeah, kind of figure out where those are and get in touch with your local AT Act. See if you can get a demonstration and borrow some equipment and see what’s going to meet that need. And then you can go out and find the things on your own.

I think that’s the best answer right there because they’re going to be the ones that’s going to be the most knowledgeable. And then just the word of mouth that you might be sharing with the people at your church or your community.

Yep.

Yep.

Awesome. Well, hey, I’d love to open this up to our listeners. If you have some additional information or advice you’d like to provide this person as our wildcard question today, provide some input. Love to have you do that. You can give us a call on our listener line. That’s 317-721-7124, or send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. Great ways to get ahold of us. Well, as we wrap our show today, I want to make sure to give Josh and Belva a chance to say goodbye. And so I want to do that now. So Belva, do you want to say goodbye to everybody?

I’ll say see you next time.

Excellent. Excellent. And Josh?

I’ll go along with Belva. Till next time.

Yeah, right. I don’t like the goodbye part.

No.

Yeah.

Goodbye for today. We’ll be back next month. How about that?

There you go. Goodbye winter. How about that?

There you go. Yeah.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Hello Spring.

I’m here for that.

Let’s go with that. Yeah, let’s go with-

Yeah, here for that.

I would love that. I’m sure everybody around the country would love that too, so.

Yeah, probably.

Well, hey, have a good one. We’ll talk to you guys next month. Take care. Information provided on Assistive Technology FAQ does not constitute a product endorsement. Our comments are not intended as recommendations, nor is our show evaluative in nature. Assistive Technology FAQ is hosted and produced by Brian Norton. Gets editorial help from Josh Anderson and Belva Smith. Receives support from Easterseals Crossroads and INDATA Project. The show transcript is sponsored by InTRAC, the Indiana Telephone Relay Access Corporation. To learn more about InTRAC, go to Indianarelay.com. Assistive Technology FAQ is also a proud member of the Accessibility Channel. To find more of our shows, go to accessibilitychannel.com.